206 OLEOMARGARINE. 



ing and research, you will find that it is suggested even at this late day 

 that the article which they are asking you to tax at the rate of 10 cents 

 a pound may not be a wholesome and healthful article. Look at the 

 flims}^ argument that they submit as tending to show that that is true. 

 Why, they say, gentlemen, that it does not digest as quickly as butter, 

 that its melting point is higher, and therefore it is more difficult to 

 digest, as they say; and they read from Professor Wilej^ to that effect 

 that its melting point was higher. As a matter of fact, gentlemen, the 

 melting point of butter and butterine of the best grades is precisely 

 the same. But they did not read all of Professor Wiley's statement 

 about its being slower to digest. If they had they would have been 

 fairer to the committee. I therefore call the attention of the com- 

 mittee to this again. 



Dr. WILEY. My impression in regard to the digestibility of butter 

 as compared to oleomargarine is formed from a purely theoretical 

 standpoint, without having tried experiments on human beings and 

 noted the time of digestion, because I do not know that that has been 

 accomplished, and more than that the actual time of digestion is a 

 matter of very little consequence, provided the food is digested. In 

 fact it is a very good thing that we do not digest all our food instan- 

 taneously, because otherwise we would be hungry after one meal 

 before we would get the next. The fact that a food is slow of diges- 

 tion, like fruit, for instance, is no reason that it is unwholesome. No 

 one would say that meat is necessarily more wholesome than fruit 

 because it is more easily digested. You can digest meat in much less 

 time than you can digest fruit, and yet nobody claims that fruits are 

 unwholesome. 



Mr. FLANDEKS. Will the gentleman permit me to ask a question for 

 information ? 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. Yes, sir. 



Mr. FLANDERS. You said that the melting point of the better grades 

 of oleomargarine is the same as that at which butter melts ? 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. Yes, sir; according to Professor Wiley's experi- 

 ments. 



Mr. FLANDERS. I would like to make a double question of this. 

 What constitutes the better grades of oleomargarine? What is the 

 difference between the poorer grades and the better grades as to 

 ingredients ? 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. There is very little difference between the better 

 grades and the ordinary grades of oleomargarine, with the exception, 

 as I understand, of the use of butter. A larger amount of butter is 

 used in the more expensive grades of oleomargarine; but the percent- 

 age is small. 



If you will notice on page 200 of the report of the House committee, 

 you will find given there the melting point of the different grades of 

 butterine which were submitted to Professor Wiley. You will find 

 that the best butter melts at 96.80 and the best butterine at 96.80 pre- 

 cisely the same. 



Senator HEITFELD. Are those Mr. Wiley's experiments ? 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. Yes, sir. 



Mr. EDSON. I beg your pardon; that was not made by Professor 

 Wiley, but by Professor Schweitzer, professor of agricultural chem- 

 istry and chemist to experiment station. 



Mr. TILLINGHAST. The fact is, gentlemen, that oleomargarine is a 



